Joseph Lister (1827-1912) Select from the menus below to find out more about a particular person. Joseph Lister (1827-1912) Add image to my collection Joseph Lister is the surgeon who introduced new principles of cleanliness which transformed surgical practice in the late 1800s. We take it for granted that a surgeon will guard a patient's safety by using aseptic methods. But this was not always the case, and until Lister introduced sterile surgery, a patient could undergo a procedure successfully only to die from a postoperative infection known as ‘ward fever’. Born in Essex, Lister was interested in surgery from an early stage - he was present at the first surgical procedure carried out under anaesthetic in 1846. Lister continued his studies in London and passed his examinations, becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1852. He was recommended to visit Professor of Clinical Surgery James Syme (1799-1870) in Edinburgh and became his dresser, then house surgeon and then his son-in-law. Lister moved to Glasgow in 1860 and became a Professor of Surgery.

He read Pasteur's work on micro-organisms and decided to experiment with using one of Pasteur's proposed techniques, that of exposing the wound to chemicals. He chose dressings soaked with carbolic acid (phenol) to cover the wound and the rate of infection was vastly reduced. Lister then experimented with hand-washing, sterilising instruments and spraying carbolic in the theatre while operating, in order to limit infection. His lowered infection rate was very good and Listerian principles were adopted throughout many countries by a number of surgeons. Lister is now known as the ‘father of antiseptic surgery’. Joseph Lister Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline Physicians Joseph Lister Biography Joseph Lister was a British surgeon who was the founder of antiseptic medicine. This biography of Joseph Lister provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline. Quick Facts 1902 - Copley Medal See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Joseph Lister was a British surgeon who was the founder of antiseptic medicine and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is credited to have introduced the method of sterilizing surgical instruments with carbolic acid which greatly reduced the risk of post-operative infections in patients.

Up until that time, it was generally believed that chemical damage from exposures to bad air was responsible for infections in wounds and doctors were not even required to wash their hands before performing surgeries. Lister read about the experiments in fermentation conducted by French chemist Louis Pasteur and conducted his own experiments to conclude that micro-organisms were responsible for the infections in patients. He set about trying to find an effective method of eliminating the micro-organisms by exposing them to strong chemicals. After extensive experimentation, he found an effective antiseptic in carbolic acid. He treated the surgical instruments and wounds of patients with the chemical and discovered that when the solution was swabbed on wounds, it remarkably reduced the incidence of gangrene. Excited by his findings, he published his results in âThe Lancetâ. He instructed other surgeons to wash their hands and instruments with 5% carbolic acid solutions before operations, and this dramatically brought down the mortality rates from infection. Hailed a hero for his significant discoveries, Lister won worldwide acclaim and was made a baron by Queen Victoria.

Childhood & Early Life Joseph Lister was born on 5 April 1827, in West Ham, England, to Joseph Jackson Lister, an amateur British opticist and physicist and his wife Isabella Harris, as one of their seven children. His father was a pioneer of achromatic object lenses for the compound microscope. Bright and curious as a young child, he studied fish and small animals. It did not take him long to realize that he was meant to be a surgeon when he grew up. He studied mathematics, natural science, and languages in Grove House School, and became fluent in French and German. He entered University College in London in 1844 and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1847. He then registered as a medical student at the same college and graduated with a bachelor of medicine with honors in 1852. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and house surgeon at University College Hospital the same year. Career He went to Edinburgh, Scotland, in the fall of 1853 and became acquainted with James Syme, the greatest surgical teacher of his day.

The following year, Lister became an assistant to Syme at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He was appointed a surgeon at the infirmary in 1856 and became a professor of surgery at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow in 1860. During that era, surgeries were very risky procedures. Many times the patients would develop infections and die shortly afterwards even if the actual surgery had been successful. It was generally believed that it was exposure to bad air that caused infections in wounds. In 1864, Lister read a paper published by the French chemist, Louis Pasteur, which showed that fermentation and food spoilage could be caused by the presence of micro-organisms. Pasteur had also given three possible methods of eliminating micro-organismsâfiltration, exposure to heat, or exposure to chemical solutions. Intrigued by Pasteurâs findings, Lister conducted his own experiments which confirmed the Frenchmanâs discoveries. Lister was now motivated to develop "antiseptic" techniques for wounds.

At around the same time, Lister also read about the treatment of sewage with a chemical called carbolic acid that had led to a reduction in diseases among the people of Carlisle, England, and among the cattle grazing on sewage-treated fields. Experimenting with the same chemical, Lister developed a technique of treating surgical instruments with carbolic acid. In August 1865, he applied a solution of carbolic acid to a serious wound on the leg of a seven-year-old boy. No infection developed and the wound healed completely after six weeks. This was an amazing discovery given that infections were very common in those days. Lister went on to publish his results in âThe Lancetâ in a series of six articles. Following his findings, he instructed the other surgeons to wash their hands before and after surgery with carbolic acid solution, and to also wash the instruments in the same solution. As a result of adopting his methods, the risk of mortality by infection fell considerably. Lister returned to Edinburgh in 1869 as successor to Syme as Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh. There he continued to work on developing improved methods of antisepsis and asepsis.

Famous by now, hundreds of people flocked to hear him speak and the "germ theory of disease" became more widely accepted. He later on moved from Scotland to King's College Hospital, in London, and was elected President of the Clinical Society of London. He also served as the president of the Royal Society between 1895 and 1900. Major Works Joseph Lister was a pioneer in antiseptic surgical methods which became popular following the publication of his paper, âAntiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgeryâ in 1867. He advocated the use of carbolic acid to kill the germs present in surgical instruments and on the hands of surgeons before any surgery was performed. Awards & Achievements He was bestowed with the Royal Medal in 1880 and the Albert Medal in 1894. In 1883, Queen Victoria made him a Baronet, of Park Crescent in the Parish of St Marylebone in the County of Middlesex and raised him to the peerage as Baron Lister, of Lyme Regis in the County of Dorset in 1897.

He won the Copley Medal in 1902 "In recognition of the value of his physiological and pathological researches in regard to their influence on the modern practice of surgery". He was also the recipient of PrussiaÂ´s highest order of merit, the Pour le mÃ©rite. Personal Life & Legacy He married his mentor James Syme's daughter, Agnes. His wife was very supportive of his medical research and the two had a happy marriage. The couple did not have any children. Lister died on 10 February 1912 at the age of 84 and was buried at West Hampstead Cemetery, London. Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England is named in honor of Lister. In 1879, Listerine mouthwash was named after him for his work in antisepsis. Two postage stamps were issued in 1965 to honor Listerâs contributions to antiseptic surgery. Translate this page to Spanish, French, Hindi, Portuguese Pictures of Joseph Lister Joseph Lister - History Learning Site Joseph Lister Citation: C N Trueman "Joseph Lister" historylearningsite.co.uk.

The History Learning Site, 17 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. Joseph Lister is alongside the likes Louis Pasteur , Robert Koch , Alexander Fleming and Edward Jenner in the work he did to further medical knowledge . Joseph Lister did not discover a new drug but he did make the like between lack of cleanliness in hospitals and deaths after operations. For this reason, he is known as the ‘Father of Antiseptic Surgery’. Lister was born in 1827 and died in 1912. As Professor of Surgery at Glasgow University, he was very aware that many people survived the trauma of an operation but died afterwards of what was known as ‘ward fever’. Work on ward cleanliness and the link between germs and good post-operative health had already been studied by a Hungarian doctor called Ignaz Semmelweiss. He argued that if a doctor went from one patient to another after doing surgery, that doctor would pass on to the next visited patient a potentially life threatening disease. He insisted that those doctors who worked for him wash their hands in calcium chloride after an operation and before visiting a new patient.

Deaths on the wards Semmelweiss was in charge of fell from 12% to just 1%. But despite this, he came up against the conservatism of those who dominated Hungarian medicine and his findings were ignored. Semmelweiss died in 1865 of blood poisoning. In 1865, Lister read about the work done by Louis Pasteur on how wine was soured. Lister believed that it was microbes carried in the air that caused diseases to be spread in wards. People who had been operated on were especially vulnerable as their bodies were weak and their skin had been cut open so that germs could get into the body with more ease. Lister decided that the wound itself had to be thoroughly cleaned. He then covered the wound with a piece of lint covered in carbolic acid. He used this treatment on patients who had a compound fracture. This is where the broken bone had penetrated the skin thus leaving a wound that was open to germs. Death by gangrene was common after such an accident. Lister covered the wound made with lint soaked in carbolic acid. His success rate for survival was very high.

Lister then developed his idea further by devising a machine that pumped out a fine mist of carbolic acid into the air around an operation. The number of patients operated on by Lister who died fell dramatically. Years Joseph Lister Blog Joseph Lister Acknowledged as the “Father of Antiseptic Surgery”, Joseph Lister’s contributions paved the way to safer medical procedures. His introduction of the antiseptic process dramatically decreased deaths from childbirth and surgery and changed the way the medical industry looked at sanitation and proper hygiene. Advertisements Early Life and Education Joseph Lister was born on April 5, 1827 in Upton, Essex, England. His father, Joseph Jackson Lister, was not only a wine merchant, but was also an amateur scientist. He was the second among three children. Coming from a family of Quakers, the young Joseph Lister also attended Quaker Schools in London and Hertfordshire. Quaker Schools put in a great amount of emphasis in the sciences, giving him a strong foundation in what was to be his chosen profession. He observed the first surgical procedure that used anesthesia in 1846. He then attended the University of London where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1847.

Later on, he qualified to become a medical student and eventually earned his Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery. Because of his exceptional performance, he was awarded with two university gold medals and easily became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1852. He then became the dresser for Professor of Clinical Surgery James Syme in Edinburgh, and eventually became his house surgeon. He married Syme’s daughter, Agnes, who became his laboratory partner because of her great interest in medical research. His Greatest Contribution Joseph Lister has always been aware that the number of deaths after surgery was not caused by the operation itself, but by what follows after the procedure. Because there was an alarming rate of “ward fever” after surgery, Lister wondered what could be causing this event. Comparing patients who had simple fractures to those who had compound fractures, he concluded that the infection was coming from the outside, as the problem only occurred to those who had open wounds as compared to those who did not have any flesh wound. Lister started adding hygienic practices before conducting any operation, making sure that his hands were clean and his clothes fresh.

At that time, it was common for doctors to walk around covered in blood as this served as a status symbol for them. Lister’s untraditional methods were scoffed at. Looking at research done by Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist known for his vaccination, fermentation and pasteurization principles, he agreed with the latter’s belief that germs are usually contracted from the air. Because Lister was a wine merchant’s son, he knew that wine went bad because the fermentation process was not done properly, and not because germs spontaneously came to life within the wine as evolutionists believed. Applying this thought to open wounds, he knew that the only solution was to find a way to kill the germs before they get the chance to enter the wound, preventing the infection to occur. Carbolic acid was then being used as an effective disinfectant for sewers. Upon confirming that it was safe to be used on human flesh, Joseph Lister saw it as the solution to the problem. He started using it to wash his hands, as well as the instruments he needed in every operation. He started covering his patients’ wounds with a piece of lint covered in carbolic acid.

He also devised a machine that sprayed the air with carbolic acid to get rid of airborne germs. He refined his techniques until he had enough proof that everything he did was successful, and went on to publish everything he discovered in a medical journal called The Lancet in 1867. As expected, it took a long time for other people in the medical field to accept Lister’s findings. A lot of them were incredulous at the thought that organisms too small to be seen were causing all the post-operation deaths. Some found it tiring to have to go through the sterilization process before performing an operation. And although some of them tried Lister’s methods, majority of them did it incorrectly that their efforts proved to be useless. He was now a Professor of Clinical Surgery in Edinburgh, and he continued to modify his system to achieve better results despite the negative feedback. It took 12 long years before Lister’s system gained widespread acceptance. Those who emulated Lister’s example in Munich gained astounding success, with the death rate caused by infection after surgery dropping from 80% to almost zero.

The English doctors were among the last to accept the brilliance of Lister’s methods, only winning them over when he was appointed as Professor of Surgery in London’s King’s College Hospital in 1877. By 1879, his findings had gained widespread acceptance around the globe. Other Achievements Joseph Lister was the Queen’s surgeon for many years, and introduced the use of rubber drainage tubes after trying it on her. He also showed that sterilized materials could be left inside a patient’s body as needed and used and left sterilized silver wire inside the body to keep broken bones together. And since the silk thread used in internal stitching causes more damage when pulled out after some time, Lister started using sterilized catgut, as this would eventually dissolve. Queen Victoria dubbed him Sir Joseph Lister in 1883. He became Lord Lister of Lyme Regis in 1897, and was the first to become a British peer for services to medicine. He was given the Order of Merit in 1902, and was made Privy Councilor. He became the Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons and President of the Royal Society.

He was also President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He helped establish the British Institute of Preventative Medicine in 1891, which was later on called The Lister Institute in his honor. With all his achievements, he finally retired in 1893, shortly after his wife died in 1892. He still entertained requests for his advice and services from time to time, although he was left a bit melancholic after losing his life partner. Joseph Lister died in Walmer, Kent, England on February 10, 1912 at the age of 84. Advertisements When British Scientists Fled from Mob Rule Advertisements Infectious diseases - timeline Infectious diseases - timeline Select from our full list of topics... A 8 Parasite Organism that feeds off another living host and causes it some damage. An example of a parasite is a tapeworm that lives in the digestive system of a host organism. Aseptic Free of pathogens. An aseptic technique is one performed under sterile conditions. Antiseptic A chemical which can destroy microorganisms. Antiseptics are applied to the surface of the skin or to living tissue to reduce the possibility of infection.

Joseph Lister and antiseptic surgery Joseph Lister was a Scottish surgeon who picked up the work of Louis Pasteur and used it to change the success rates of surgery. In 1865 Lister read about Pasteur's work on how wine went bad because of microorganisms in the air. Lister was convinced that microorganisms in the air were also the cause of the infections which killed up to half of his patients after they had successfully survived surgery. The open wounds made it easy for the germs to get into the body. Lister had heard that carbolic acid had been used to get rid of a cattle parasite in fields, and to treat sewage. He decided to see if it could also stop wounds becoming infected. He started to clean the wounds of his patients with carbolic acid, and soak the dressings in antiseptic liquid as well. In the years from 1864-66 the death rate for Lister's surgical patients was 45.7%.

Between 1867-70, when he introduced his new antiseptic treatment, this fell to 15% Lister in theatre Lister went on to develop an antiseptic spray which was used in operating theatres during surgery to keep the wound clean. This spray was not used for long though, because carbolic acid actually damages the tissues and breathing it in causes many problems. More successful was the special dressings he developed which contained carbolic acid to keep the wound clean but a barrier to keep it away from the flesh so it didn't cause any damage. Lister's work revolutionised surgery once his aseptic techniques were accepted. Although the antiseptics and disinfectants used have changed, aseptic surgery is still the basis of saving millions of lives. How Antiseptic Surgery Arrived in America BY RICHARD H. KESSIN, PH.D., AND KENNETH A. FORDE, M.D. In a two-part series, Richard H. Kessin, Ph.D., professor of pathology and cell biology and former associate dean of graduate students, and Kenneth A. Fordeï¿½59, the Josï¿½ M.

Ferrer Professor Emeritus of Surgery and Columbia University trustee, explore the interesting history leading up to Presbyterian Hospitalï¿½s ï¿½ and Americaï¿½s ï¿½ first antiseptic surgery. An operation in the 1880s, showing the surgeons wearing street clothes. By the late 1880s sterile gowns had appeared and, in the 1890s, gloves. In the foreground on a stool is a vaporizer that sprays 2 percent carbolic acid over the operating field. This device was later abandoned when it was determined that most infecting bacteria came from instruments, hands, and clothing, rather than the air. From ï¿½Medicine-An Illustrated Historyï¿½ byï¿½ A.S. Lyons and R.J. Petrucelli, published by Harry N. Abrams NY 1978. IN THE FALL OF 1914, ELIE METCHNIKOFF, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, father of immunology, and optimistic philosopher, was alone in his laboratory at the Pasteur Institute. It was not a good time for philosophers of optimism.

He could not yet hear the sound of the artillery on the Marne, but he was, he tells us, waiting for it. Unable to work, he decided to occupy his time by writing a book for students called “Three Founders of Modern Medicine: Pasteur, Lister, Koch.” Metchnikoff, then over 70, had known all of the protagonists in the battle for the germ theory of infectious disease. Pasteur was his mentor and Joseph Lister, the father of antiseptic surgery, was his friend. Robert Koch, the great German bacteriologist, was an opponent who did not believe in immunity or in the ability of certain immune cells, phagocytes, to consume bacteria. Metchnikoff was the father of cellular immunology and phagocytosis was his great discovery. The manuscript was not published and Metchnikoff died of heart disease in 1916. In 1933, a group of his friends published it as a memorial. Columbia has copies in French and in Russian, but not English. We know from library records that someone checked out the French version in 1937.

A 1991 biography of Metchnikoff never mentions this small masterpiece. This is Metchnikoff’s introduction: These pages have been written in special circumstances. If we do not yet hear the growling of cannons, it is in waiting for them that I have had to spend several weeks in Paris, in my laboratory, which has been put in a state of war. The state of war has been accompanied by a near complete cessation of all scientific activity at the Pasteur Institute. From fear of a lack of food for the experimental animals, we have had to kill them, which keeps us from doing our research. The stables of the Institute have been emptied of cows, whose milk was destined for hospitals and orphanages. The majority of young collaborators, assistants, and technicians have been mobilized and we now have only women and old men. Myself, as an old man, find myself unable to experiment and in possession of much free time. I have employed it to write this book, in the hope that it will be useful. It is not for doctors, but for young people looking for an orientation in their research.

We can be sure that this senseless war, which burst upon us as a result of a lack of understanding and will from those who should have valued peace, will be followed by a long period of calm. We must hope that this slaughter without precedent will suppress for a long time the desire to fight and that people will feel the need for more reasonable activities. Let those with a combative spirit be directed to the fight not against humans but against the innumerable microbes, visible and invisible, which menace us from everywhere and keep us from achieving the normal and complete cycle of our existence. Lister greets Pasteur on his 70th birthday in December, 1892. Pasteur, by then infirm, is being assisted by Sadi Carnot, President of France. Lister and Pasteur were cordial colleagues and exchanged letters and scientific materials. Lister repeated Pasteurï¿½s experiments on spontaneous generation for his students. Painting by Jean Andrï¿½ Rixens, The painting is at The Sorbonne. Photo courtesy of Duke University Photo Archives. Who would not keep reading such a writer?

Consider what Metchnikoff then tells us of surgery and medicine during the Crimean war from 1854-1856. The French army dispatched to the Crimean peninsula consisted of more than 300,000 men. About 10,000 were killed in combat, but 85,000 men, more than a quarter of the army, were lost from illness and as a result of wounds. According to the official army medical report by a General Chénu, published in 1865, 10,000 men died of wounds — many bled to death en route to hospitals but a large number died of erysipelas, general septicemia, or the ghastly disease called hospital gangrene. Of 1,681 wounded men whose legs were amputated above the knee only 136 survived, a mortality rate of 92 percent. Amputations below the knee had a death rate of 71 percent. Dr. Chénu noted that the “lack of success of surgery was depressing.” The results of surgery were similar during the American Civil War. But surgery was not the worst of it.

Surgeons operated only on those who had been wounded. Infectious disease had no prerequisites. At the beginning of 1854, cholera attacked the French army and caused it to retreat. In July, within a corps of 55,000 men, more than 8,000 had cholera. In August, the situation became worse and many of the army’s physicians and surgeons died. In September, the commander, Maréchal Saint-Arnaud, died. Cholera came back in 1855. When cholera diminished during the winter of 1854-1855, typhus appeared, killing 30 percent of its 1,523 victims, again taking many of the medical corps. The British armies, also engaged in the Crimea, were no better off, although the dramatic intervention of Florence Nightingale did help. In October of 1854, Richard James MacKenzie, surgeon to the infirmary and lecturer on surgery at the Edinburgh Extramural School, volunteering with the 79th Highlanders, died of cholera. Joseph Jackson Lister filled Mackenzie’s position in Edinburgh.

Listerï¿½s realization of the relevance of Pasteurï¿½s ideas to disease was a critical moment in the history of medicine. Metchnikoff tells us how Lister changed this helpless state of surgery. How he did it, how much the surgeons and physicians of his time opposed him, and how the new ideas came to Presbyterian Hospital are the subjects that concern us here and in the next issue of P&S. By 1860, Lister was professor of surgery in Glasgow. He could not understand why compound fractures had a terrible prognosis, while simple fractures, where the skin was not broken, healed without suppuration or putrefaction. Lister wrote: These and many other considerations had long impressed me with the greatness of the evil of putrefaction in surgery. I had done my best to mitigate it by scrupulous ordinary cleanliness and the use of various deodorant lotions. But to prevent it altogether appeared hopeless while we believed with Liebig that its primary cause was the atmospheric oxygen, which in accordance with the researches of Graham, could not fail to be perpetually diffused through the porous dressings?

But when Pasteur had shown that putrefaction was a fermentation caused by the growth of microbes, and that these could not arise de novo, in the decomposable substance, the problem assumed a more hopeful aspect. [Leibig, the greatest organic chemist of the period, initially opposed the idea of a biological agent of fermentation and putrefaction, thinking it was vitalism and smacked of mystery.] Lister’s patients were consumed with gangrene and erysipelas. The ward, later to become famous as the Lister Ward, stank from the smell of putrefaction. In late 1864, Lister talked to his friend Dr. Thomas Anderson, a chemist at the University of Glasgow. Professor Anderson, an expert in shale products and petroleum, suggested that Lister read the papers of Louis Pasteur. Pasteur had proved that fermentation was accomplished by living bacteria and that, furthermore, putrefaction was similar to fermentation but of albuminoid (protein) substances. He showed through now famous experimentation that bacteria did not arise from inanimate matter but came from the air or other sources of contamination. Lister, who spoke French, read the papers.

Lister’s realization of the relevance of Pasteur’s ideas to disease was a critical moment in the history of medicine. Pasteur, across the channel, was consumed with efforts to debunk spontaneous generation theories and industrial problems in the beer, wine, and silk industries. He was not a physician and, although he surely realized the relevance of his ideas to medicine, he was not ready to take on the medical establishment. That would come later and meet bitter resistance. But Metchnikoff tells us that for Lister there was no waiting. As Lister recalled in 1891: But when Pasteur had shown that putrefaction and other fermentative changes were caused by the growth of micro-organisms, and had at the same time demolished the idea of spontaneous generation, the problem of the prevention of putrefaction in wounds seemed no longer hopeless. The fermentative microbes could not arise de novo in the blood or tissues, and the experience of the absence of all danger in simple fracture seemed to indicate that they could not gain access by any other channel than an open wound. It therefore seemed possible that putrefaction might be entirely prevented in wounds by treating them with some substance which might destroy the life of the microbes, though not excluding the atmospheric gases.

Ken Forde, Rich Kessin, and Steve Novak in Archives & Special Collections, photographed with a collection of original notes from the Presbyterian Hospital surgical service in 1876. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Professor Anderson, whose role is not appreciated, suggested and then supplied a compound that would kill bacteria — carbolic acid (phenol), which had been used to remove the smell from sewage in the town of Carlisle. Lister prepared for an appropriate patient to test the compound and his new procedures: He repeated some of Pasteur’s experiments on spontaneous generation, showing that no bacteria formed de novo in sterilized media. He worked out that a 5 percent solution of phenol kills bacteria and he developed ways to sterilize catgut for ligatures. He prepared lotions of dilute phenol to sterilize the patient’s skin and special sterile dressings of exact thickness imbedded with dilute phenol or other antibacterial substances. Eventually, he made a machine to spray dilute phenol over the operating field. In March of 1865, he had a patient with a compound fracture of the femur.

At that time amputation was the only treatment for compound fractures and, as the survival rates show, was not very effective. Lister sterilized the wound with carbolic acid and the wound remained uninfected. The leg and the patient were saved. In 1867 Lister reported the results of a number of cases in The Lancet. Lister repeated some of Pasteurï¿½s experiments on spontaneous generation, showing that no bacteria formed de novo in sterilized media. Despite Lister’s success, opposition to antiseptic surgery throughout the 1870s and 80s was widespread. Surgeons (and obstetricians) of the day could not believe that anything as small as a bacterium could cause such disaster. Acceptance would mean that surgeons, with their contaminated hands and instruments, had been the cause of endless suffering and death. Opponents argued that antiseptic surgery did not always prevent infection and that traditional techniques often worked, with no infection. The antiseptic techniques of Lister were a developing art; failures, especially by the careless or unqualified, discredited the techniques. Some surgeons rejected the methods because phenol was hard on the hands.

(It was not until the 1890s that William Halsted, an 1876 P&S graduate, solved this problem by introducing gloves). Some surgeons, especially in France, carped about Pasteur’s lack of medical qualifications. Surgeons in England sniffed at a fancy French invention. Late in the 1880s, after Lister had moved to London, two schools of surgery — antiseptic and classical — defined the discipline. Sir William Watson Cheyne, one of Lister’s house officers, who wrote an excellent biography of Lister in 1925, said examiners of one school would fail students of the other during exams. But what of America? In New York, John Call Dalton, eminent physiologist and later president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, wrote a long, even masterful, monograph in which he summarized the history of the idea of spontaneous generation. He concluded that by 1872 everyone agreed that animals or complex beings could not form by spontaneous generation and that they came from eggs. He leaned toward the conclusion that bacteria could not form spontaneously from inanimate matter but was not ready to conclude that they could not.

This was in 1872, a decade after Pasteur had laid the matter to rest and five years after Lister’s first reports. In that same year, Presbyterian Hospital opened. Its surgical wards had patients dying of the same causes as the wounded soldiers of the Crimean and Civil wars. During this period, a young New Yorker, a veteran of the Civil War, had quit the family investment house, moved his wife and children to Europe, and started to attend lectures in medicine at the University of Paris. His name was Lewis Atterbury Stimson (his son, Henry Stimson, later served as Secretary of State under Hoover and Secretary of War during World War II). He made many important contributions to surgery and medical education. His letters from Paris to his brother, the Rev. Henry Stimson in New York, explain how he came to join the antiseptic school of surgery. Here is one: Paris, February, 28, 1875: My dear Henry: I went to the Academy of Medicine the other day and was lucky enough to see and hear Pasteur.

The subject under discussion was bacteria and brought to their feet several men with whose names and work I became familiar while studying the subject last summer so that it was doubly interesting to me. Pasteur is a man 50-55 years old, with black hair and beard, medium height, rather squarely built, spectacles, and as aggressive a pug nose as one often sees. He speaks slowly and not fluently, is quiet in manner but merciless, utterly without levity, toward his wretched opponents, and has a little streak of humor which is very effective. The audience was evidently much interested in him, all bent forward and eagerly greeting every point, but his colleagues seemed rather cool towards him. Still, when he got through there was nothing to be said, he had completely cleared the ground, and the discussion ended almost immediately. It had been provoked by a paper presented by a young man who had examined the pus of 18 or 20 abscesses and found bacteria in most of them. He allowed himself to intimate that he had found spontaneous generation.

It would have been easy for anyone to overthrow the argument, but Pasteur gave only a word or two to its weak points and then said, “I have read the young man’s paper carefully and will quote only one thing to show how utterly unreliable it all is. He says he carefully cleaned all his instruments, glasses, knives etc., with the hyposulphite of lime which instantly destroys all germs. Now the hyposulphite of lime is a slightly alkaline liquid (all this in the quietest most professorial tone) in which bacteria live and thrive most readily.” As you see, there was nothing more to be said. I felt sorry for the young man whom I happened to know, but he deserved it, for I had seen several of his examinations, and they were not conducted carefully. Stimson was primed with ideas on antisepsis by the time he returned to New York later in 1875 to receive his M.D. degree from Bellevue Medical College. By January of 1876, he was an attending surgeon at the still-new Presbyterian Hospital.

He was soon to perform the first operation in America under complete antiseptic conditions — an amputation at the thigh, for which the survival, as we have seen, was typically low. The authors have found the original case notes from the historical operation, the recollections of Stimson’s assistant, Dr. David Bryson Delavan, and Stimson’s own descriptions of the case. This dramatic event — and the difficulties faced by a new generation of New York surgeons — will be recounted in the next issue of P&S. The authors thank Stephen Novak, head of Archives and Special Collections, for his knowledge and assistance. Introduction of Antiseptics 1867 - Intriguing History Site Map Send to Kindle The eminent surgeon, Joseph Lister, introduced new procedures for cleanliness during surgical procedures, after experimenting with Pasteur’s work on microbes. Lister had been concerned for a long time, that patients were dying in hospital, of a fever known as ‘ward fever’ that had nothing to do with the condition they had presented with at hospital. He thought that the fever was caused by the surgery itself. Pasteur’s work, encouraged Lister to experiment by applying chemicals to the wound and therefore to the microbes therein.

He soaked dressings in carbolic acid and found that the infection rate was dramatically reduced. He went on to introduce hand washing with carbolic soaps and sterilizing surgical apparatus. Infections rates and death rates in hospital went down and Lister became known as ‘the father of antiseptic surgery’. Share this: Abstracts: Lord Joseph Lister the “Father of antiseptic surgery” Lord Joseph Lister the “Father of antiseptic surgery” Abstract: 1051 Date & Time: May 21, 2012 01:00 PM Session Title: History Forum Sources of Funding: None Introduction and Objectives The year 2012 marks the centenary of his death. His lifetime work is discussed, which was central to the surgical revolution of the 19th century. Methods Information is based on original research from the archives at King’s, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal College of Surgeons, the Wellcome Library, Lister Institute and BBC sound recordings. Results In the pre-Listererian era, in the middle of the 19th century abdominal surgery carried such a high risk of mortality due to infection that it was banned.

Lister’s antiseptic techniques made it possible to perform surgery in the vital areas as the chest, abdomen and brain._x000D_ _x000D_ The antiseptic properties of carbolic acid led to his antiseptic regime. He used carbolic acid to clean the wound and the surgeon’s hands; the wound was covered with carbolic acid covered lint. He practiced preparing the operating theatre with a carbolic spray and soaking the instruments and surgical towels in carbolic solution._x000D_ _x000D_ Lister’s career progressed from University College, where he trained, to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and finally Kings. Although his ideas had been accepted in Scotland and much of Europe it was not widely understood in England. Lister therefore felt he had to come to London to prove and promote the success of his regime. He came with his team as Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1877 to Kings. His antiseptic practice was dramatically tested when Lister performed an open procedure on a transverse fracture of the patella which was against the principles of pre-Listerian surgery. London watched.

The case was successful; his reputation was made and led to the rapid increase in the use of antisepsis. The mortality of his patients dropped dramatically indicating the ability to perform open surgery safely had now been achieved. Open surgery for bladder calculi was now possible._x000D_ _x000D_ He tied broken bones with silver wire and showed that suitably sterilized materials could be left inside patients. He discovered catgut and introduced the use of surgical drains. Conclusions Lister was given many honours including the first medical peerage and order of merit. Lord Moynihan stated, “Lord Lister was the greatest material benefactor the world has ever known. He saved more lives than all the wars and all the ages have thrown away”. Authors Nandasena, Aruna (London, United Kingdom); Thompson, Peter Contact Us

Question: Who was known as "The Father of Antiseptic Surgery"?
Answer: Joseph Lister